On Set with John CarpenterThe Photographs of Kim Gottlieb-Walker

Review by Paul Fiander

John Carpenter has made some pretty epic films and this bookcelebrates 5 of them, but not through the usual means instead we get to see the creation process through a still camera lens. The lens in this case is in themore than capable hands of Kim Gottlieb-Walker and through her experiences we get an amazing look behind the scenes at the cast and crew of; Halloween 1 & 2, The Fog, Escape From New York and Christine.

The majority of images are in Black and White with a few in colour (almost exclusively from Escape from New York); the presentation of the book lends itself to the images as the white pages help the largely black backgrounds to really stand out. As with the majority of Titan’s image based books there is a wide variety of image sizes and this helps to lift some images as well as keeping your eyes active throughout your engagement time. This allows room for various quotes to be added from a multitude of sources, these again help to highlight the creation process but more than that it gives the images a stronger impact.

At the start of each section there is a piece concerning some of Kim Gottlieb-Walker memories of the film shoot. It helps to give the book a personal touch and this is made even stronger by the way the subjects of the pictures are so relaxed around Kim and her camera. This is alluded to within the book when discussing Jamie Lee-Curtis, at the time of Halloween she was a young actress with stars for parents. As such she was used to the curse of photographers and actively shied away from Kim. To her credit Kim found a way to engage the young star and ended up with a multitude of fantastic shots that you can see throughout the films in which Jamie Lee-Curtis appeared in. This kind of anecdote is helpful to photographers who want to break into the movie business along with other gems mixed with the actual art itself.

The book has a dedication in the front to producer Debra Hill who was responsible for hiring Kim to document the films covered by the book and is credited within the dedication as she “shattered the glass ceiling for women producers and gave so many of them their first jobs in Hollywood”.

Although the subject is probably the thing that will draw most people into this book it is the artistic eye of Kim Gottlieb-Walker that will drive the desire to consume the images. This is a memoir of a time before digital cameras and shows how a great photographer was able to craft their images using the environment and the subject (and of course rudimentary post production in the dark room). For carpenter fans this is a great read but those interested in the visual arts this is an equally compelling book.

The book is published by Titan Books as is available from the 24th of October 2014 for £24.99